Andy Whitfield, best known for his role as Spartacus on the Starz series, passed away over the weekend. After 18 months, Andy lost his battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, passing away in his home of Sydney, Australia yesterday afternoon.

The family released a statement, saying:

"On a beautiful sunny Sydney spring morning, surrounded by his family, in the arms of his loving wife, our beautiful young warrior Andy Whitfield lost his 18 month battle with lymphoma cancer. He passed peacefully surrounded by love. Thank you to all his fans whose love and support have help carry him to this point. He will be remembered as the inspiring, courageous and gentle man, father and husband he was."

Truly, truly a significant loss. We can't imagine what his loved ones are going through right now.

We offer our condolences to all of his family, friends and fans. He will be missed dearly.

Very sad. "Doesn't seem fair"??? Um, it isn't. Also, you were one of the last outlets to report this….which is also sad. I was hoping he'd pull through, I loved that show and he was gorgeous, as I'm sure he was on the inside.

This is damn sad. Andy Whitfield was awesome, intense and beautiful as Spartacus in "Spartacus: Blood and Sand". I thought he was on his was to become something big after the first season and then illness struck instead. My prayers go out to his family.

Re: Everything popular is wrong. – I feel no shame whatsoever. Especially not on this site. It creeps me out to know that the guys I masturbate to are dead. Makes me feel like I'm participating in a form of distant necrophilia. I would hope it weirds you out too…? Unless you're in to that kinda thing?? But Still, I'm sad he is no longer with us. :'(